-
08 Feb 2010 05:32
February 8th, 2010JavaScript Epub readers discussed
Threepress Consulting discusses several new JavaScript Epub readers. Why JavaScript?* JavaScript is the most popular programming language in the world and it might be the best way to get more developers interested in creating and tweaking ePub readers.
* JavaScript ePub readers start challenging publishers, developers, and book readers to start thinking about what’s most important in delivering a compelling reading experience in a browser. We’ve spent a lot of time thinking about these choices while developing Ibis Reader, which will launch later this month, so I’m eager to see more opinions.
* Building a pure-JavaScript ePub reader requires unzipping in JavaScript, which had no open source implementations until just recently. August has written about and open sourced his critical breakthrough for unzipping files in JavaScript.
For more details, including a like to some tutorials, check the site.
February 8th, 2010Dan Poynter and Mark Coker to speak at SF Writers Conference
Coker and Poynter will be on a panel entitled “The Ebook Revolution” on Saturday, February 13. It will be moderated by literary agent Ted Weinstein. Coker is founder of Smashwords and Poynter is author of Dan Poynter’s Self-Publishing Manual. You can find more details here.
British Library to offer 19th Century first editions for free download on Amazon Kindle
The Library’s ebook project will make more than 65,000 first-editions available this spring for the first time. It is funded by Microsoft. Microsoft and the Library have been scanning books for the past three years. The article in the Telegraph about the project goes on to say:As well as classic titles by famous 19th Century authors, many of the downmarket books known as “penny dreadfuls” will also be made available to the public, including Black Bess by Edward Viles and The Dark Woman by J M Rymer.
In addition, paperback copies of the first editions will be available from Amazon for about £15. Unfortunately the article does not give any technical details, or any links.
A further article in Times Online says:
Books to be made available will include Victorian classics such as A Strange Story by Edward Bulwer-Lytton and The Story of a Modern Woman by Ella Hepworth Dixon.
Altogether, 35%-40% of the library’s 19th-century printed books — now all digitised — are inaccessible in other public libraries and are difficult to find in second-hand or internet bookshops.
Thanks to Richard Herley for the heads up.
February 7th, 2010-
Amazon purchases touch-screen startup; on e-ink, LCD, and eyestrain
- Brenna Lyons: I think eye strain is…
- Hal Duncan: So the big question is…
- Hal Duncan: Cheers. For what it's…
-
iPad fans rejoice: a roundup of all the analysts' opinions
- Cindy: Sure, the iPad is very…
- Robo: Still haven't found any use…
- Rob Preece, Publisher: @Brian, Actually, advances matter more than…
- illukar: Isn't this more of "re-publish"…
-
Doris Lessing on reading and writing in the Internet age
- It Only Takes Two Heart Attacks To Finaly Make You See » Blog Archive » Is The Internet Dumbing Us Down?: [...] http://www.teleread.org/2007/12/10/doris-lessing-on-reading-and-writing-in-the-internet-age/ [...]
-
Closed Circle: Lynn Abbey, C.J. Cherryh, Jane Fancher create new DRM-free e-book store
- Joyce: I just purchased a book…
- Jane Fancher: Thanks, Chris, for putting up…
- Please take Dear Author's ebook/reader survey
-
Richard Herley on White's Selborne - a pioneering natural history book
- Richard Herley: What a lovely surprise! I…
-
Amazon purchases touch-screen startup; on e-ink, LCD, and eyestrain
-
07 Feb 2010 11:09
February 7th, 2010Richard Herley on White’s Selborne – a pioneering natural history book
Richard Herley, an English author whose books are great, has a wonderful blog in which he often discusses the natural history of the English countryside. I follow him with relish.Now he discusses Gilbert White’s Natural History of Selborne, and he says:
While not going so far as one author, who declared that no one who does not own and appreciate a copy of White’s Selborne has no claim to call himself an English naturalist, I would nonetheless hold it up as indispensable to the library of anyone who loves our countryside, or who loves our language properly used, or both. … There have been nearly three hundred editions; the book is never out of print. … White’s legacy is the conviction that anyone, equipped only with a keen pair of eyes and an open mind, can add information of real value to our knowledge of the world. He has been an inspiration to countless people since, including some of today’s most eminent scientists.
White’s book is available through Gutenberg and I’m going to download it for my Kindle when I finish posts for the day.
February 7th, 2010Is this what Macmillan et al. are “really” afraid of? Amazon as a publisher
USA Today has a story about how self-published novelist Zetta Elliott was picked up by Amazon and published by AmazonEncore in paperback, ebook and audio.Now get this, according to the story an Amazon editor contacted Elliott directly and offered to publish the book. Evidently her book was praised on blogs and used in some schools and this got Amazon’s notice. The Amazon VP won’t discuss contract details but says that they don’t pay advances, though they do pay competitive royalties based on sales. He says that editors use customer reviews and sales data to find promising books.
Now, given the irrationality around the ebook pricing debate, could the real fear of Macmillan and other publishers be that Amazon may eventually supplant them? Amazon has far greater resources and a huge data mining operation which the traditional publishers can’t begin to match. While Macmillan editors are wading through their paper slushpiles looking for a hit, Amazon just needs to crank up its data searches and find the next self-published best seller almost automatically.
Pretty scary if I were a traditional publisher. And if I were that publisher don’t you think that one of the things I’d do was to do my best to undermine Amazon’s credibility among authors, or potential authors.
February 7th, 2010New Kindle owners: alternative ebook sources “download how to”
Actually this is for other ereader owners as well. Carly Z has a “how to” for those Kindle owners who want to look at other options than Amazon.She covers Smashwords, Manybooks, Feedbooks, Project Gutenberg, and tells you how to get books from these sources from your computer onto your ereader.
For those looking for more free ebooks, take a look at our own free ebook guide, which includes some sources that Carly left out. The downloading principles are the same, however.
February 7th, 2010PVI planning color, touch and animation-capable e-ink screens this year
According to Digitimes, PVI will introduce a pressure sensitive screen in 2010 in which the sensors are behind the screen, rather than on top as they are in the current Sony Reader, for example.In addition to color, PVI will be introducing a screen whose refresh is fast enough so that it can display animation, according to PVI chairman Scott Liu.
February 7th, 2010E-ink watch reviewed
I’ve seen pictures of this e-ink watch but never seen one in action. Now E-Ink_info has a review of the watch. Cool looking, but a bit pricy for something with so few functions. Here’s the video and a full review is on the site.
The Biblio File Amazon/Macmillan podcast now available
We had a great show today on The Biblio File, marred only by a minor technical malfunction in the middle. I was joined by Paula Berinstein of The Writing Show (as well as a number of listeners in the text chat) and we talked for over an hour about Ficbot’s and my posts, the Amazon/Macmillan situation in general, and related matters.
The 30-megabyte mp3 file can be downloaded here (right-click and choose “save as”), or streamed from the show’s homepage. At some point it will be available in the iTunes podcast section as well.
Items we discussed include:
- “Maybe we should be hurting the authors” by Ficbot
- "The Amazon/Macmillan blow-up: An e-book lover’s appeal for understanding" by me
- “Why do people want more expensive backlist books?” by Tobias Buckell, and KingTaco’s comment on same
- MobileRead.com
- “’Game Change’ truly changes the game’” (on one-star Amazon rating to protest e-book “windowing”) by Alejandro Sanchez
Hopefully more people will join us for a future show!
-
Is this what Macmillan et al. are "really" afraid of? Amazon as a publisher
- pond: There's a flip side to…
- Piet van Oostrum: ‟And if I were that…
- Spherical Time: Great post, Chris. I…
- Chris Meadows: Hal: Funny thing: in 2008,…
- Review of Cooler ereader at MobileRead
-
Sony PRS-505 Poll: Did your screen break?
- TRCT: Had my PRS505 for about…
- Aaron Pressman: Chris, how will this end…
- David Sucher: The pricing game is not…
-
Samsung and Iriver Story first impressions - direct from Korea
- Ika makola: Iriver story, general problems: Most…
- Rosa: I am on a stright…
-
Is this what Macmillan et al. are "really" afraid of? Amazon as a publisher
- Richard Herley on White’s Selborne – a pioneering natural history book
- Is this what Macmillan et al. are “really” afraid of? Amazon as a publisher
- New Kindle owners: alternative ebook sources “download how to”
- PVI planning color, touch and animation-capable e-ink screens this year
- E-ink watch reviewed
- The Biblio File Amazon/Macmillan podcast now available
-
06 Feb 2010 17:33
Amazon/Macmillan: The post-game analysis
Now that the Macmillan books are back on Amazon, a number of sites are coming out with analyses of what Amazon gained or lost over the week-long incident. I’m going over them as I prepare for my panel show podcast on the matter this afternoon.There is some good discussion going on in recent Making Light threads about the Amazon/Macmillan dispute, particularly this one about the agency pricing model
has a good piece on how Apple played the same game with the publishers to put pressure on Amazon’s price structure that Amazon played with the record labels to put pressure on Apple to go DRM-free. Matt Buchanan points out that the contrast between iPad’s full color LCD and Amazon’s black-and-white e-ink might have made it particularly attractive to publishers.
With that contrast in mind, all the publishers needed was a little push. All Apple had to whisper was, "Hey, we’ll let you set your own prices for books. You should control your own destiny. We’d love to have you. You know, $12.99 is a really good price for a beautiful color version of your amazing books. BTW, why are you letting Amazon undersell you?" It doesn’t matter that publishers make less absolute money through the agency model used by Apple—Amazon might’ve given them $15 for a book it sold for $10, but under the agency model, the seller takes 30 percent off the top. They wanted to feel in control, and that their books are worth something more. Steve gave them that, even as he’s probably got his fingers crossed behind his back.
He notes that the music industry has historically not been entirely happy after getting in bed with Apple, and suggests the publishing industry may end up feeling the same way.
Over on a comment thread, Charlie Stross notes, “From Apple’s POV, ebooks are merely a convenient toy with which to bait the hook of hardware sales. From Amazon’s POV, ebooks are their future life-blood.”
February 6th, 2010TODAY, 4 p.m. Eastern: Live talk podcast on Amazon/Macmillan affair
This Saturday, I have decided to host a live, call-in podcast talkshow on my book-related podcast The Biblio File, Saturday February 6th at 4 p.m. Eastern, 1 p.m. Pacific (and 9 p.m. UK) time. The podcast will be devoted to a discussion of this week’s Amazon/Macmillan feud. I have invited several guests, but I do not know whether any of them will desire or be able to attend, so I’m prepared to discuss my own point of view with all comers if it comes down to that. I will welcome as many different viewpoints as possible, but the show will be moderated to prevent anyone from getting out of hand.
You can attend or listen in several ways.
February 6th, 2010Wow!! New volume of Gormenghast discovered! Bummer! No ebook versions of the trilogy
This is great news! According to this article Vintage has acquired a fourth volume which continues the famous Gormenghast trilogy. It was written by Peake’s widow, Maeve Gilmore, and is entitled Titus Awakes.The volume was round in the attic of Peake’s granddaughter. It will be released in 2011, along with a luxury hardback edition of the trilogy.
Unfortunately, I cannot seem to find an ebook version of the trilogy anywhere.
February 6th, 2010Kindle books for sports fans
I’m not a sports fan so I can’t comment on the selection, but First and Goal has published a list of the 25 “Must Have” Kindle books and subscriptions for sports fans.They say: The following twenty-five must-have Kindle e-books and subscriptions for sports fans provides the best that Amazon has to offer in football, baseball, soccer, sports culture and sports marketing. If you follow the links and browse at the Kindle Store, you’ll learn that there are far more than twenty-five sports fans books at Amazon; however, this list contains the top-rated and best-selling e-books.
The list also included a comment on, and description of, each book.
February 6th, 2010iPad fans rejoice: a roundup of all the analysts’ opinions
ReadWriteWeb’s Sarah Perez has done a hell of a job compiling opininions about the iPad from a huge list of analysts. She says: Below, we’ve combined all the analysts’ statements and estimates into one massive read. And after going through everything that’s been said, we discovered that the collective opinion of the analyst industry is that Apple has a definite winner on their hands. Go over and take a look. Sarah’s compiled too many analyst opinions to list here.
February 6th, 2010BookGlutton makes Fox Business News
Thanks to Kay Meyer’s Facebook page I found out that BookGlutton made Fox News. Here’s what Fox says:If you want to join a book club but can’t seem to find one, or if you’re in one and can’t seem to agree on what to read, there’s a Web site you may want to try.
BookGlutton.com is a site where anyone with a computer and Internet access can read and discuss a variety of books. Users have access to BG’s “Unbound Reader,” which displays books with two side panels for discussion. You can chat with other users about the book in real time via the “Talk Panel.” If you want to add a comment after the initial conversation you can use the “Mark Panel.” Last October, BookGlutton made a deal with technology publisher O’Reilly Media, adding more than 500 titles to its collection. That’s in addition to material from Random House, Feedbooks.com, and public domain books.
February 6th, 2010Kindle developer program now open
The Amazon Web Services Blog has announced that the Kindle development beta program is now in open enrollment. The blog says:We’ll ask you to briefly describe your idea during the enrollment process. Enrollees receive information on how to download the development kit, how to receive support from us while you develop your project, and how to submit your finished project to the Kindle Store. The development kit includes a Kindle simulator (both 6″ and 9.7″) that works on Windows, Mac OS, and Linux. You can also register up to three Kindle devices through the developer portal; the owners of those devices will receive invitations to download and test your active content.
February 6th, 2010Macmillan books back on Amazon
The New York Times is reporting that Macmillan books are now back on the Amazon site. No details of the agreement between Amazon and Macmillan have been released.The Times does speculate, however, that the agreement between Amazon and Macmillan would assure that no other ebook vendors, such as Apple, get preferential prices and that perhaps users of Kindles could lend books to each other.
February 6th, 2010Google spreads misinformation about the Settlement
David Drummond is Google’s senior vice president for corporate development and chief legal officer. In an article about the Settlement published in the Guardian, Drummond states:Some have questioned the impact of the agreement on competition, suggesting it will limit consumer choice and hand Google a monopoly. In reality, nothing in this agreement precludes any other organisation from pursuing its own digitisation efforts. … If we successful, others will follow. And they will have an easier path.
This is simply disingenuous, if not downright misleading. Google has used this line of reasoning before and it sounds pretty good to a public which does not understand the legal system. What Drummond should have said is this:
If Google succeeds with the Settlement then you must remember that the Settlement is just between Google, and only Google, and the class. If anyone else wants to try this then they also risk being sued for copyright infringement and the only way they can go ahead with their own digitization plans is to be sued for infringement by more authors and then go through a whole settlement process of their own.
Now you tell me, how many companies have the resources to go through this process? Very few. Once Google gets a Settlement approved it will, for all practical purposes, own the field.
February 6th, 2010- Brenna Lyons: ficbot, You're wrong. I AM listening.…
- Blue Tyson: Hal, Good. As there you have…
- Wow!! New volume of Gormenghast discovered! Bummer! No ebook versions of the trilogy
-
Amazon/Macmillan: The post-game analysis
- Devini: Get rid of those ''stupid''…
-
Google spreads misinformation about the Settlement
- HeavyG: I don't think he is…
-
Free ebook "Piracy" from University of Chicago Press today only
- Enrico Poli: I guess the book will…
-
E-book reader quick links: Samsung, Apple, Amazon
- Cindy: I am very impressed by…
Paul Biba is now managing the TeleRead site. Reach Paul with news items or other TeleRead business. He's at paulkbiba NOSPAM gmail.com.
- Amazon/Macmillan: The post-game analysis
- TODAY, 4 p.m. Eastern: Live talk podcast on Amazon/Macmillan affair
- Wow!! New volume of Gormenghast discovered! Bummer! No ebook versions of the trilogy
- Kindle books for sports fans
- iPad fans rejoice: a roundup of all the analysts’ opinions
- BookGlutton makes Fox Business News
- Kindle developer program now open
- Macmillan books back on Amazon
- Google spreads misinformation about the Settlement
-
06 Feb 2010 00:01
February 6th, 2010The Amazon/Macmillan blow-up: An e-book lover’s appeal for understanding
Over the last few days, the angry Amazon/Macmillan rhetoric has been flying fast and furious from several positions. Recently, we posted an impassioned piece by Ficbot with the attention-grabbing headline, “Maybe we should be hurting the authors,” which was linked in a post on author Tobias Buckell’s blog and has brought us a great deal of traffic today (not to mention the liveliest comment thread we’ve seen in some time).There seems to be a perceptual disconnect, or maybe several perceptual disconnects, between the authors/publishers on one side and the e-book readers on the other. There are many voices on both sides, both reasonable and less so—and to each side, the loudest voices on the other side become that other side’s entire argument.
And so we have on one side e-book fans absolutely convinced that publishers and authors unjustly hate them (or worse, don’t care at all). And on the other, there are writers who plaintively wonder, “How did the American public get hoodwinked into believing that the suppliers are the bullies rather than the retailers?”—and some who actively belittle the e-book fans.
It’s the kind of misunderstanding that makes it so, so seductive to write a response, because “someone is wrong on the Internet” and you’re just sure that if you make that one more post, say that one more thing, you’ll get through to them somehow. You know beyond any doubt that you’re right, and you’re sure they’d agree too except they’re just misunderstanding you, and you have to make them understand
I’m halfway afraid that this post is going to be just another iteration of that. But all the same, but I’m going to try to unpack some of the issues on the readers’ side and explain why this issue is so incendiary for long-time e-book fans.
February 5th, 2010Authors Guild responds to Justice Department’s comments
Given the importance of this matter I am reprinting their response in full. The Guild argues that the it is avoiding the pitfalls that the RIAA fell into. They say the RIAA won every battle but lost the war and infringement didn’t truly abate until Apple moved in with an easy and cheap way to buy music. The Guild seems to be saying that they are putting Google in Apple’s place in the publishing context:
February 5, 2010. As you may be reading in today’s paper, the Justice Department in its filing regarding our settlement with Google continues to see legal problems with the settlement, focusing on class action law but also continuing to raise some antitrust concerns. We disagree with the Justice Department’s reading of the law. At the same time, it’s good to see the Department recognizes the settlement’s many benefits. In our view, it’s best for everyone that out-of-print library books be made available through reasonable, market-based means to readers, students and scholars. Without a settlement, that won’t happen. It’s also best that authors have direct control of the scans that Google has made, with the power to compel Google to hide, display or remove those scans. Without a settlement, authors have no such control. Google’s scanning and use of authors’ books would continue until the lawsuit was finally resolved.
February 5th, 2010Amazon/Macmillan: Economics, the agency model, an interesting rumor, and who’s moving buy buttons
David Pakman brings an economics perspective to the Amazon/Macmillan dispute, complete with a “price elasticity of demand” chart right out of a textbook.He explains the idea of finding the profit-maximizing price—the price at which the amount of profit times number of units sold is highest—and emphasizes that Amazon has access to the economic data from its millions upon millions of transactions to let them do just that, while publishers do not.
So, why would publishers NOT want Amazon to find the optimal profit-maximizing price? Because, like many entrenched media companies, they have massive legacy cost structures that don’t support selling books at, say $6 wholesale. They offer many unreasonable arguments against this: books are “worth” more, authors won’t make enough money, it’s bad for the industry, etc. These are not economic arguments, but are meant to maintain the status quo economics as long as possible. And it’s ultimately bad for them.
Pakman adds that “low-cost digital distribution, where the marginal cost of each incremental item sold is zero, brings consumer expectation that price must fall. They don’t care if the rent on your offices at 50th and Broadway are $8M a year.”
Of course, Amazon may not necessarily be trying to maximize its profit per se, since as matters stand they are actually losing several dollars on each copy of many of the e-books they sell. But they certainly do know what consumers want to pay.
February 5th, 2010FBI director Robert Mueller wants ISPs to log visited web sites
Especially since 9/11, the FBI has long been interested in being able to check up on the reading habits of ordinary people. In 2002, we covered a librarian’s concern about a provision of the Patriot Act that would allow the FBI to request information from libraries. In 2005, we covered an actual use of that provisionIn 2008, David Rothman discussed FBI director Robert Mueller suggesting “that the bureau should have a broad ‘omnibus’ authority to conduct monitoring and surveillance of private-sector networks.” Since the Kindle uses wireless networks, David was concerned that it meant the FBI might take an interest in e-book reading habits as well as paper ones.
Now Mueller is at it again. At a federal task force meeting today, an attorney for the FBI said that Mueller would like ISPs to keep records of web users’ “origin and destination information.” In other words, the FBI wants to be able to find out what web sites users visit, just as it can get call information from phone companies.
A number of ISP representatives are cited in the story saying that it would currently be very difficult, and perhaps a violation of wiretapping law, to keep track of that information. Whether possible or not, it could certainly have the potential to be a major violation of privacy.
Almost everybody visits web sites that might be viewed as subversive or undesirable by authorities, or that they otherwise do not want other people to know about. (Some are unfortunate enough to do so while on national television.) On the e-book side, this might include politically-sensitive reading matter, or even sexual fetish art and fiction sites.
February 5th, 2010New displays from Qualcomm and E-Ink
Wired’s Gadget Lab blog has a feature on Qualcomm’s Mirasol display screen technology. From the writeup, the screen will work better for books, magazines, and other still-image purposes than video due to lower color saturation than viewers expect for video. However, it will be capable of 24 frames-per-second animation when it comes out.The Mirasol’s big advantage over color LCD is that, like e-ink, it provides a low-energy “bistable” display, which can be read in all light conditions. It could allow later Kindles or other future e-book readers to give the iPad a run for its money.
Speaking of Kindle displays, Gizmodo reports that PVI (which now owns E-Ink), the company that makes Kindle displays, says it is working on color touchscreen displays. Given that Amazon just purchased a separate touchscreen company, this does not necessarily mean they will end up in the Kindle. However, since these screens are also used by all other e-ink-based readers, they could very well end up in a future Sony, Astak, etc.
February 5th, 2010Reading comic books on the iPad – some great software
Gizmodo author Rosa Golijan is excited about a new comic book viewer being developed for the iPad by Panelfly. According to her it is not just a scale-up of their iPhone app, but an entirely new app that will take advantage of the iPads screen size. Evidently you will be able to purchase comics directly through the app.Rosa says: As far as reading and navigating content on the new iPad app goes, let’s just say it’ll blow us all away. From what Stephen was able to share with me, Panelfly “didn’t want to stray too far from the native Apple UI elements, [they] wanted to create something that was [theirs] as well as a platform that gave the content the respect it deserves.” And from the looks and sound of it? They’ve succeeded.
February 5th, 2010Maybe we should be hurting the authors
Notice anything missing in the publisher press releases about their ‘victory’ in the Amazon/Macmillan battle? John Scalzi writes to other authors. John Sargent is writing to ‘authors, illustrators and literary agents.’ Rupert Murdoch is speaking directly about his own bottom line
What all of these seeming insiders are forgetting though is that without the paying customer, there would not be a bottom line! Authors, absent a paying audience, would be sticking it in a drawer like Emily Dickinson did, writing for their own personal satisfaction.
Where is the voice of the customer in all of this? What are they doing to try and make things better for themselves?
February 5th, 2010Barnes & Noble updates Nook firmware to 1.2
Gizmododetails of the new 1.2 firmware update for the Barnes & Noble Nook that is apparently being widely pushed to the e-readers now. In summary, it includes a lot of tweaks to improve the user interface, and also makes pages load faster.Still no sign of a web browser like the Kindle’s, however.
February 5th, 2010Amazon still making money on Macmillan sales despite lockout
I never thought about this aspect of Amazon’s sales. Richard Curtis at E-Reads points out that Amazon continues to make money on Macmillan books, albeit less. This is because Amazon hosts the sale of new and used Macmillan titles from third-party booksellers. Curtis thinks that Amazon gets somewhere between 3-4% on such sales.This is more complicated then we thought.
February 5th, 2010Quick note: 10 million e-ink readers to be sold in 2010
The chairman of PVI, who makes the e-ink screens everybody uses, says that this is where they are projecting sales. Over 50 new venders are expected to launch ereaders this year. As a result of this PVI is going to triple its capacity at a capital cost of about $1.5 million.(via E-Reader-Info)
February 5th, 2010Why are you for killing libraries?
That’s the name of an article on Library Thing today. Following up on an article by Mike Shatzkin about how bookstores will probably go away, the author feels that this may apply also to libraries.The difference is, of course, that libraries don’t pay every time they circulate a book. Under the First Sale doctrine—the idea that you, well, own the things you own—libraries can pay once, and lend a book out multiple times.
Ebooks change this. As ebooks advance, libraries are going to lose their “First Sale” advantage. Publishers will never allow a library to “own” an ebook absolutely, just as consumers don’t really own their ebooks. Libraries are going to be renting them, in fact or in effect, and they’re going to paying a lot more to do it. They’re going to be paying for the use they get out of them, not spending what consumers spend and getting more use. (I’ve written on the economics here before, so check that out first if you disagree with me.)
As the logic takes hold, libraries will be transformed into “simple” book-subsidy machines, not the special, advantaged ones they are now. That means they’re either be forced to subscribe to fewer books, invest a lot more in their holdings or, for public libraries, convince voters to give them a lot more money. Those are bad options.
February 5th, 2010Susan Piver on Amazon/Macmillan: Avoiding the music industry crash?
I’ve been looking for good articles on Amazon/Macmillan from the authors’/publishers’ perspective I could link here that were thoughtful and analytical beyond the “here’s what’s happening” posts (and subsequent snark) Scalzi and Stross have been posting—and thanks to this post at , I finally found one.In this piece at the Huffington Post, music-exec-turned-author Susan Piver compares Amazon’s sales of e-books at loss-leader pricing to the big box chain stores’ sales of compact discs at loss-leader pricing in the 1990s and the subsequent death of music stores and homogenization of the national music scene.
I grew up in the ‘70s and ‘80s, and I have little doubt that most people my age or older well remember when there were music stores (“record stores”, we called them before the CD). But I suspect most people more than ten years younger hardly remember them at all.
I do remember going into them, looking at the prices, and thinking, “This costs way too much. It’d be cheaper at Wal-Mart.” And that way of thinking, Piver suggests, is what led to music stores’ downfall.
-
Maybe we should be hurting the authors
- Tony Rabig: Speaking strictly as a book…
- Hal Duncan: @Dave: "However, your major point…
- Download the Bible so it can be locked up on your Kindle
-
The Amazon/Macmillan blow-up: An e-book lover’s appeal for understanding
- Alan Wallcraft: As another example of Amazon…
-
Full text of new Macmillan ad in Publishers Lunch
- Craig: I don't like it. …
- Why are you for killing libraries?
- Mike Perry: Public libraries should examine the…
- Mike Perry: Quote: "Sargent’s message, despite a…
-
Authors Guild responds to Justice Department's comments
- Mike Perry: Quote: "That innovation [meaning theft]…
- Amazon/Macmillan: Economics, the agency model, an interesting rumor, and who’s moving buy buttons
-
Quick note: 10 million e-ink readers to be sold in 2010
- gravel: we'll see what really happens.…
-
Barnes & Noble updates Nook firmware to 1.2
- gravel: will it finally save people's…
-
Maybe we should be hurting the authors
- The Amazon/Macmillan blow-up: An e-book lover’s appeal for understanding
- Authors Guild responds to Justice Department’s comments
- Amazon/Macmillan: Economics, the agency model, an interesting rumor, and who’s moving buy buttons
- FBI director Robert Mueller wants ISPs to log visited web sites
- New displays from Qualcomm and E-Ink
- Reading comic books on the iPad – some great software
- Maybe we should be hurting the authors
- Barnes & Noble updates Nook firmware to 1.2
- Amazon still making money on Macmillan sales despite lockout
- Quick note: 10 million e-ink readers to be sold in 2010
- Why are you for killing libraries?
- Susan Piver on Amazon/Macmillan: Avoiding the music industry crash?
- SPIE launches digital library
- British polar explorer Captain Robert Scott’s diaries digitized and released
- Google digitizes the Ottawa Citizen
-
03 Feb 2010 23:26
February 3rd, 2010More Amazon/Macmillan feud fallout, conversations, and conspiracy theories
TechCrunch’s M.G. Siegler reports that another “winner” in the Amazon vs. Macmillan feud is Barnes & Noble, who is getting a lot of new purchase traffic for books Amazon is currently unwilling to carry.I would add, from the time I have spent reading various discussion forums about it, that a good many of the people who comment in discussion threads at Scalzi’s WhateverCharlie Stross’s blog, and Making Light have said they are shifting all their purchases over to Barnes & Noble—and some have said they are going ahead and buying Nooks, too.
Furthermore, the SFWA today announced it is removing all links to Amazon.com from its website. If Amazon keeps this up much longer, it is going to exhaust much of the goodwill that authors and publishers have previously had toward it—and after some of the other disputes publishers and author-advocacy groups have had with Amazon already (the pricing issue, the Kindle text-to-speech issue, the listing-used-books-with-new issue) there may not have been much of that left to begin with.
February 3rd, 2010Amazon purchases touch-screen startup; on e-ink, LCD, and eyestrain
One fairly big news item to hit today involves Amazon’s purchase of Touchco, a 6-person startup company with a new multitouch-capable, completely transparent touch-screen overlay technology.A number of the blogs and news sources linking this story remark on how this technology is capable of use with the current multi-color LCD technology that drives the iPhone, iPad, and other forthcoming tablet PCs. They speculate that Amazon may be planning to go head-to-head vs. the iPad and deliver a multimedia experience with its next iteration of Kindle.
However, it is worth noting there is no reason this overlay technology couldn’t still be used with e-ink displays, too, producing a touch-sensitive e-ink display much more readable than the glare-haunted Sony PRS-700 I reviewed last year. I have to question whether Amazon would have any interest in leaping from its core mission of providing a superior reading experience into realms where Apple is much more accomplished.
Speaking of touch-sensitive displays, Slashdot has a link to an Engadget story about Displax Interactive Systems, a company that has developed a film that can be applied to any surface to turn it into a touchscreen. Suddenly those Star Trek: The Next Generation control panels are looking a lot more plausible.
February 3rd, 2010Please take Dear Author’s ebook/reader survey
Hi all! Jane from Dear Author here. I’m privileged to be able to give a presentation at this month’s Tools of Change conference along with Sarah Wendell from Smart Bitches Trashy Books and Editor Angela James from Carina Press. Our presentation is what readers want and it is based on conversations we’ve had with ebook readers for over four years on our blogs, in email and on message boards. But folks like hard numbers along with anecdotes so we’ve put together a survey and would love for you to fill it out. If you do fill it out, you’ll be entered to win $250.00 toward books or an ebook reader of your choice.It’s an opportunity for your voice to be heard.
Editor’s Note: Let’s help Jane and Sarah out. I’ve already taken the survey and I hope you will do so also. PB
February 3rd, 2010NPD claims 93% of owners satisfied with e-book readers
A press release from market research company NPD claims that according to a new report it has issued, 93% of e-book reader owners claim to be “very” or “somewhat satisfied” with their devices, and only 2% of owners expressed dissatisfaction at all.The release goes on to discuss the features e-reader owners enjoy and want, and also mentions that about 30% of e-reader owners also read e-books on other devices, such as PCs or smartphones, as well.
The press release indicates that over 1,000 e-reader owners “identified from NPD’s online panel” took part in the survey. It is not clear exactly what NPD’s online panel was or whether it might have led to a selection bias.
It would be interesting to read the report itself, but the only link for it on NPD’s special reports page leads to a contact form for more information about NPD’s products and services. It probably costs a small fortune.
February 3rd, 2010Simon Owens interviews Tor authors about Amazon/Macmillan dispute
Simon Owens, pictured at left, has interviewed Tor authors Jay Lake and Tobias Buckell about what the dispute has done to them.I asked [Jay Lake] if Tor had reached out to its authors at all during this entire ordeal to address any concerns that they may have. Lake said that it hadn’t, and that he had heard from a source that “Macmillan has instructed the entire staff from the top down not to speak on the record.”
You can read the rest of the article at Simon’s Bloggasm blog.
February 3rd, 2010CBC’s quote-licensing terms prove controversial
In 2008, we covered a story about the Associated Press claiming that bloggers needed to buy licenses to quote more than ten words, then hastily backpedalling into a murky area of refusing to say how much was all right to quoteIt turns out that Canada has been going through something similar. TechDirt posts that last week, the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC) came out with a new set of rules intending to “bring some clarity and some consistency” and make the rules “as unambiguous as possible.”
However, as TechDirt points out, the actual effect was to do exactly the opposite, because the rules seemed to state that any quoting of stories by bloggers was not permitted.
Now the CBC is hastily attempting to clarify what it meant, claiming that it is, in fact, all right for bloggers to quote the CBC, even though this directly contradicts the rules as laid down on their site. The CBC representatives say they will be reviewing the terms in light of public objections.
It seems to be fairly common now for media organizations to try to put limits on fair use. We’ve seen this with the AP, with Murdoch and Cuban’s claims of news aggregator freeloading, and now with the CBC. Where will it all end?
February 3rd, 2010Free PDF to Word Converter
AnyBizSoft is giving its converter until March 1. They say: AnyBizSoft PDF to Word Converter is an easy-to-use application, which is specially designed for converting PDF to Word 2010 (.docx) 2007(.docx), 2003(.doc). The original text, layouts, images and hyperlinks can be exactly retained in the generated Word documents. Just with one click, you can convert your read-only PDF files into fully formatted editable Word documents less one minute. Unfortunately, the Mac version is not included in the giveaway.
February 3rd, 2010The real agenda of Apple’s ebook partners: death to ebooks by Aaron Pressman
The head of one of the big book publishers, Macmillan CEO John Sargent Jr., is out with an “open” letter about his dispute with Amazon over the pricing and timing of electronic books. It’s telling that this “open” ebook letter wasn’t released publicly and isn’t directed towards readers, book lovers and customers. It was placed as an ad in a small publishing industry trade rag and the message is for publishing industry insiders. Sargent’s message, despite a bunch of misleading surrounding verbiage, is simple: let’s strangle the growth of ebooks.If you want to understand where Sargent and other major book publishers are coming from, I strongly recommend watching this online footage from a conference New York University hosted last September. Here you can see Sargent and a couple of fellow old media dinosaurs whine and complain about the digital world, dismiss Facebook, Craig’s List and Twitter as irrelevant non-businesses that will never make money and generally explain their plans to charge everyone for everything at every opportunity.
February 3rd, 2010Review of Oberon Design Kindle DX cover
Over at Gear Diary Judie Lipsett has a review of a great Kindle cover. Previously I reviewed the Oberon Design cover for the Kindle 2 hereJudie likes the cover as much as I do and she says, in part:
Impeccable craftsmanship and gorgeous designs; option of reading in landscape or portrait mode; leather is supple and thick – offering plenty of protection for the contents inside.
February 3rd, 2010Your Library and the Ebook Format Wars—A Good Change? by Tony Bandy
I noticed that in the stories following CES this year, lots of media outlets were amazed at the sheer quantities of e-readers, tablets and other media devices on parade. Library Journal, http://www.libraryjournal.com/, also noted this but mentioned as well new companies such as COPIA, http://www.thecopia.com, and Blio, http://www.blioreader.com, which are advocating new methods and formats for ebooks and other types of media. At the cost of alienating many of us, the push for innovation and different formats, I think, is a good thing. From a library standpoint, now is a great time to push for internal change and integrate these methods as well as the ebook formats currently in use. BlioTeleRead contributor, , , librarian, librarians, Blio, budgets, COPIA, , , librarians, , , public librariesFebruary 3rd, 2010The Case for the Kindle by John Miedema
The Case for Books is the title of Robert Darnton’s new book. I am reading the hardcover print edition, my other Christmas gift after a Kindle. The physical casing of books seems in question in the digital age. Will ereaders replace print books? The book too is a technology. A better reading device must both preserve the best features of the print book for long form reading, and then enhance them. In this second post of my Kindle shakedown series, I give my personal take on the Kindle’s hardware and physical features.Jeff Bezos, CEO of Amazon, says that the essential design element of the Kindle is “bookishness”. My first impression was that the 6″ display of the Kindle 2 was not much bigger than my old PDA on which I had tried reading without satisfaction. I had second thoughts about whether I should have waited for the Kindle DX with its 9″ display and smaller keyboard. Perhaps I just needed time to adjust. I have grown content with the screen size. At first I felt the keyboard should have been touch screen, called up as needed then hidden, but there is a physical satisfaction to working the round keys. When I first flipped between pages I disliked the blinking screen but now I hardly notice it. The two week battery life makes me forget the reader is a device that needs charging.
February 3rd, 2010Hachette Livre and Hachette UK file objections to Google Book Settlement
The companies objected to the pricing mechanisms saying that the settlement allows Google to discount the list price and even sell at a token price if it wants. This could hurt Hachette’s name and the reputation of its authors.Hachette UK also said that it had not received an identification of the works that had been digitized and Hachette Livre said that it will cost more than the minimum cash payment Google is to make for the books to determine which its works classify as books under the Settlement.
-
Please take Dear Author's ebook/reader survey
- Dan: Yes, there is no place…
- hapalochlaena: They do ask for your…
- The real agenda of Apple’s ebook partners: death to ebooks by Aaron Pressman
-
Your Library and the Ebook Format Wars—A Good Change? by Tony Bandy
- Don M.: Perhaps it would be at…
- Amazon purchases touch-screen startup; on e-ink, LCD, and eyestrain
-
The Case for the Kindle by John Miedema
- John: All good tips! Thanks.
- Andrys: John, The Wikipedia…
-
Cyrillic Kindle - Beta testers needed!
- Alla: can you please tell if…
-
Free PDF to Word Converter
- Will Manis: Not saying that this is…
- John: Thanks Paul. This works…
-
The eBook Wars: The Price Battle (III) — One Author’s View
- Josh Haney: @Rich Banks already do open their…
- Scott Nicholson: This is a little bit…
- Andrys: Yes it is, but at…
- John: Thanks Andrys. That is a…
-
Update to Adobe Digital Editions coming
- Carmel: And it doesn't support RTL…
- Textbook companies to partner with ScrollMotion to put content on iPad
- We’re Running as Scared as We Can
-
Rupert Murdoch, Mark Cuban talk about content and news aggregators
- Rob Preece, Publisher: Am I the only one…
- The Gadgeteer reviews the Aluratek Libre - a great low priced unit
-
Please take Dear Author's ebook/reader survey
- More Amazon/Macmillan feud fallout, conversations, and conspiracy theories
- Amazon purchases touch-screen startup; on e-ink, LCD, and eyestrain
- Please take Dear Author’s ebook/reader survey
- NPD claims 93% of owners satisfied with e-book readers
- Simon Owens interviews Tor authors about Amazon/Macmillan dispute
- CBC’s quote-licensing terms prove controversial
- Free PDF to Word Converter
- The real agenda of Apple’s ebook partners: death to ebooks by Aaron Pressman
- Review of Oberon Design Kindle DX cover
- Your Library and the Ebook Format Wars—A Good Change? by Tony Bandy
- The Case for the Kindle by John Miedema
- Hachette Livre and Hachette UK file objections to Google Book Settlement
- The Gadgeteer reviews the Aluratek Libre – a great low priced unit
- The eBook Wars: The Price Battle (III) — One Author’s View
- Textbook companies to partner with ScrollMotion to put content on iPad
-
01 Feb 2010 20:53
February 1st, 2010Quick notes: Amazon/Macmillan, Google/AP, Joo Joo launch
James McQuivey at PaidContent thinks that in the Amazon vs. Macmillan faceoff, Amazon was the real winner, because now they get to make money on Kindle books instead of losing it and because publishers will soon discover they have to lower their prices if they want to sell e-books. Personally, I think he is being a little optimistic.
We previously reported that Google had stopped carrying new AP stories as the result of their contract nearing the end of its term. Danny Sullivan at SearchEngineLand now reports that the Associated Press and Google have apparently come to some sort of arrangement, though it does not seem to involve Google actually hosting AP content as it used to.
VentureBeat reports that FusionGarage’s CEO claims the Joo Joo (nee CrunchPad) will ship this month, and they have manufacturing support from a major southeast Asian mobile phone OEM. With a 12” screen and 1368 by 768 pixel 16:9 resolution (not to mention support for Flash), it could make for a much better media experience than the iPad. No further word on the TechCrunch lawsuit, though.
February 1st, 2010Cheap Reads: The ‘Paradise’ stories
One of the chief functions publishers serve is gatekeepers. Because they invest a lot of money into publishing and publicizing a given book, it is in their best interest to make sure that book is good. Hence, with the understanding that not every book is to every reader’s taste, we rely on publishers to filter out the “slush” and give us books that are good to read.
But now the Internet has come out to play, and writers who do not want to have to bother with going through the traditional publishing structure can post what they write freely or inexpensively, or even self-publish it through Amazon.
Some have complained that this turns the Internet into one giant slushpile. However, others counter that this just means other methods of picking out the good stuff have to come to the fore. One such method is the trusted reviewer.
With that in mind, in these “Cheap Reads” columns I am going to pick out a few free or inexpensive e-books that are a bit off the beaten path, and that are certainly available for less than the $14.99 Macmillan wants to charge for e-books. I encourage other TeleRead contributors to do the same.
February 1st, 2010John Scalzi sums up weekend’s ‘Amazon fail’
Author/blogger John Scalzi writes a cogent analysis of the many ways Amazon screwed up over the weekend. While Scalzi, as a Macmillan author himself, is not exactly a disinterested party (as he is literally the first to admit), he does make some good points about ways that Amazon could have pulled the same stunt but built up more (or lost less) reader and author sympathy.For example, writes Scalzi, Amazon could have built up to the event with its vast PR machine rather than simply flipping the switch and leaving everybody in the dark. As it was, Amazon simply removed the books and left everybody to wonder what was going on—angering both authors (who also tend to blog a lot) and those authors’ fans.
Amazon then remained mum for most of the weekend, letting Macmillan get off its press release first and spin the issue as it desired—and when Amazon did issue a statement, it was made by a very minor part of the Amazon bureaucracy (the “Amazon Kindle Team”) and buried where the average person could not easily find it—and it said some very odd things.
People who read my coverage of the event over the weekend know that I was more on Amazon’s side than Macmillan’s (though not overly fond of either of them for the other things they had done) but Scalzi, as usual, makes some darned good points. Amazon could have done a lot better for itself, and come off a lot less like a petulant child throwing a hissy fit.
Maybe if it had, the outcome would have been different.
February 1st, 2010TeleRead’s Ficbot opens Free/Cheap Books site
As mentioned in her article below, TeleRead contributor Ficbot has opened a website for free and cheap ebooks. Here is what she has to say:I am not aiming for this website to be simply a giant compilation of every link out there. This will be a more personal site about books I have personally and and vouched for. I realize that my personal taste may be just that, personal, but I am hoping this more intimate approach will help people winnow their way through the vast Slush Pile of the Internet with books that are tried and true (by someone, at least….)
If you also want to read reviews of the more ‘commercial’ books I read, those reviews (and more detailed reviews of some of the books here) can be found on my blog.
If you are an author and you would like me to consider reviewing your ebook, drop me an email and we can discuss the details.
My goal for this website is to point people toward the quality stuff! I want to encourage readers to support independent authors. Genres which interest me include mystery, light romance and general fiction. I am not interested in fantasy, and only rarely read sci-fi.
February 1st, 2010“Nature” magazine on the iPhone
Nature is, of course, one of the premiere science journals. They have announced an iPhone app today. I’m off right now to get it. More info hereThe nature.com iPhone application allows you to access science news stories and the latest published research from Nature Publishing Group on your iPhone wherever you are. As new articles are published they’re pushed straight to your iPhone where you can read the full text immediately or just save them for later.
Tell the app which journals you’re interested in or set up saved searches, which will show you the titles and abstracts of new articles from any journals in PubMed that match your key words.
February 1st, 2010Reader backlash against the Amazon/Macmillan war: putting our money where our mouths are
So, who lost the weekend’s ebook war, Amazon or Macmillan? Neither, actually. Amazon gets to raise its prices, make more money and come off looking like the good guy. Macmillan proves yet again that Big Publishing doesn’t get it (did you see even a single mention of book-buying customers in their open letter) and who loses most? The customers—the ones who buy books and upon whose money the whole house of cards actually operates!I have been delighted to find that some readers are starting to fight back. There are alternatives to Big Publishing, if you know where to look and what to look for!
February 1st, 2010Quick Note: Free books for braille and DAISY readers
More free stuff today. Download 20 free first chapters of contemporary titles, as well as 5 complete Classics titles at www.readhowyouwant.com/humanwareClassics titles selected for the February Free Download Program are Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte, Gulliver’s Travels by Jonathan Swift, Middlemarch by George Eliot, The Last of the Mohicans by James Fenimore Cooper, and Jude the Obscure by Thomas Hardy.
February 1st, 2010The eBook Wars: The Price Battle (II) — Starbucks 1, Publishers 0
On January 23, 2010 The New York Times had a front-page article titled, “On Kindle’s List, the Best Sellers Don’t Necessarily Need to Sell.” The article went on to discuss the phenomenon with which most savvy ebookers are familiar: many of the “bestsellers” on any ebook bestseller list are free titles. More important to publishers is that many of those bestsellers are always-free public domain books, not paid-for ebooks being given away temporarily as promotions.The article went on to discuss publisher approaches to freebies, how freebies are promotional, and other good reasons why giving away an ebook is good and/or bad. (Sadly, the article neglects to mention some of the best sources for free ebooks such as MobileReadFeedbooks. Free ebooks at these two sources are well-formatted and generally well-edited by a caring community.)
February 1st, 2010Amazon price capitulation good for authors
It is easy to think that there are only two main constituencies in this ebook pricing war – publishers and readers. But there are the authors too.Richard Curtis points out that the increased price of ebooks will help authors. Currently most publishers pay a royalty of 25% of net receipts on ebooks. Macmillan actually is the lowest payer with a royalty of only 20%.
Curtis points out that as the prices of ebooks rise it will be harder and harder for companies such as Macmillan to maintain lower than “standard” royalties, and it may even help in raising the standard in the future.
February 1st, 2010Quick note: Calibre 0.6.37 released
Here are the new features:
* E-book viewer: Add support for viewing SVG images
* Add category of Recently added books when generating catalog in e-book format
* OS X: Allow adding of books to calibre via drag and drop on the calibre dock icon
* Add support for masthead images when downloading news for the Kindle
* MOBI metadata: Allow setting of metadata in old PRC files without EXTH headers as wellFebruary 1st, 2010Thoughts on the iPad and libraries
The Librarian 1.5 blog, written by Norwegian librarian Thomas Brevik, has a few thoughts on what the iPad means to libraries. Here is a snippet:How do we get content from the library to the iPad and similar devices, and can libraries use iBook or the AppStore as a delivery method? I think there will be several opportunities, and that binding libraries to a cooperation with Apple to get in through the iBook store probably will be difficult and even counterproductive. There are at least two avenues to go, either create an international LibraryBook app (open source of course), that will work on any operating system, or cooperate with the creators of any of the open source apps that are out there to deliver books through them. Both avenues has their pros- and cons, but I believe that to secure a future for the library brand it would be a good idea to develop a special library app.
Will the iPad and iPad like devices change the media habits of readers? Very likely. The iPod and iPhone has both changed a lot of behaviour and expectations from library users, and how other devices are viewed and used. I expect to see increasing demand for content on tablets from readers and probably pressure on the library to deliver certain types of content, i.e. ebooks.
February 1st, 2010Acer won’t compete with iPad – iTunes and App store are too strong in the market
Acer is a major computer manufacturer and their President, Scott LIn, has said that they just can’t compete with the iPad because:The strength of the iPad, Lin said, will lie in its connectivity to iTunes and the App Store, which now offers more than 140,000 software choices.
“Historically, closed platforms are typically limited in terms of scale and are confined to niche markets,” the report said. “Apple has built is business out of carving its own niche, which means that while Apple could see success with devices like the iPad, other players are unlikely to be able to replicate its result simply by copying, Lin noted.”
-
Why publishers should jump on the iPad bandwagon
- harmon: @ Rich Oh, btw, I don't…
- harmon: @Rich I have to say that…
-
Thoughts on the iPad and libraries
- Mike Perry: This is likely to get…
-
Reader backlash against the Amazon/Macmillan war: putting our money where our mouths are
- Chris Meadows: Mike: It'll be nice if…
- Mike Perry: People are assuming this is…
-
John Scalzi sums up weekend’s ‘Amazon fail’
- Paul Story: Ahh... Just saw the entry…
- Paul Story: I think Amazon is being…
- E-book formatting for authors: Reader contribution by Smashwords' Mark Coker
- acmesalesrep: The claim: "[Jobs] doesn’t believe…
-
Amazon price capitulation good for authors
- Paula B.: Good heavens, Paul. Why would…
- Bruno Di Giandomenico: And who will lose, as…
-
DRM: A TeleRead primer
- Divya: I just came across this…
-
Free ebook "Piracy" from University of Chicago Press today only
- Betsy Garret: What does it mean: "Free…
- Ian: Adobe DRM alert. For any…
-
Amazon's Faustian Bargain
- Blue Tyson: In the end, of course,…
- asphalt: @GJN: Isn't the format war…
- Deanna: And it was one of…
-
TeleRead's Ficbot opens Free/Cheap Books site
- Chris Meadows: The interesting thing to me…
- Luqman: The Ipod is not the…
-
"Nature" magazine on the iPhone
- cheap r4i software: Nature Photo Magazine is a…
-
The cost of e-books, revisited
- cheap nintendo dsi r4: I have posted before about…
-
B&N on Nook: Android SDK possible---plus other goodies from news conf with B&N online-biz prez
- Thomas Jurgensen: I really desire to have…
- The Kindle comes to Canada, by John Miedema
-
Why publishers should jump on the iPad bandwagon
- Quick notes: Amazon/Macmillan, Google/AP, Joo Joo launch
- Cheap Reads: The ‘Paradise’ stories
- John Scalzi sums up weekend’s ‘Amazon fail’
- TeleRead’s Ficbot opens Free/Cheap Books site
- “Nature” magazine on the iPhone
- Reader backlash against the Amazon/Macmillan war: putting our money where our mouths are
- Quick Note: Free books for braille and DAISY readers
- The eBook Wars: The Price Battle (II) — Starbucks 1, Publishers 0
- Amazon price capitulation good for authors
- Quick note: Calibre 0.6.37 released
- Thoughts on the iPad and libraries
- Acer won’t compete with iPad – iTunes and App store are too strong in the market
- Why publishers should jump on the iPad bandwagon
- Polish author finds “reading devices” is inapropriate langage
- Free ebook “Piracy” from University of Chicago Press today only
-
31 Jan 2010 19:56
January 31st, 2010Amazon capitulates in Macmillan e-book disagreement: Higher e-book prices ahead?
It appears the feud is over, with the publisher winning this time. Turns out Amazon’s pulling Macmillan titles was just a token gesture.has posted the following announcement to its Kindle Community forum:
Dear Customers:
Macmillan, one of the "big six" publishers, has clearly communicated to us that, regardless of our viewpoint, they are committed to switching to an agency model and charging $12.99 to $14.99 for e-book versions of bestsellers and most hardcover releases.
We have expressed our strong disagreement and the seriousness of our disagreement by temporarily ceasing the sale of all Macmillan titles. We want you to know that ultimately, however, we will have to capitulate and accept Macmillan’s terms because Macmillan has a monopoly over their own titles, and we will want to offer them to you even at prices we believe are needlessly high for e-books. Amazon customers will at that point decide for themselves whether they believe it’s reasonable to pay $14.99 for a bestselling e-book. We don’t believe that all of the major publishers will take the same route as Macmillan. And we know for sure that many independent presses and self-published authors will see this as an opportunity to provide attractively priced e-books as an alternative.
Kindle is a business for Amazon, and it is also a mission. We never expected it to be easy!
Thank you for being a customer.
I can’t help but find this decision disappointing.
January 31st, 2010NASA posts free X-15 e-book
via Wired: NASA has added a free e-book section to its website, and posted its first title—a history of the X-15 rocket plane test program which was an important part of space research in the 1960s.
The book is available in DRM-free “Kindle” and “Sony Reader” formats—though mousing over the links reveals they are really MobiPocket .PRC and PDF formats respectively—and NASA promises a Nook (eReader?) version soon.
The .PRC version opens just fine in the MobiPocket Reader desktop app on my PC, but it may be a little much for handheld Mobi-compatible readers to handle—it contains so many photos and charts that it clocks in as a 10 megabyte file. That’s larger than the entire on-board memory of the Palm III PDA!
A hard copy of the book, including an insert CD-ROM with photo gallery and charts, can be ordered for prices starting at $4 with standard shipping.
January 31st, 2010Legal analysis of the Amazon/Macmillan brouhaha
Editor’s Note: this is reprinted, with permission, from Scriviner’s Error blog of C. E. Petit. As a lawyer I’ll just say that I agree with this conclusions. Numbers in brackets refer to footnotes at the end of the article. PB
Depending on how one counts, this is either the second or third major AmazonFail arising from egotistical — and ultimately stupid and self-defeating — mass delistings of material by Amazon. A pox on all their houses; although Amazon bears the most blame for this, Macmillan is hardly blame-free.Let’s get the Macmillan problem out of the way first, because understanding it sheds an awful lot of light on other issues. Andrew Wheeler offers a useful introduction that, unfortunately, doesn’t go far enough in assigning responsibility. First, one should note that Macmillan is willfully and misleadingly mislabeling its “new model”; leaving aside that it isn’t at all new, it is not an agency model. It is, instead, a fewer-layers version of the
present book retailing model, which is not a sales model: Instead, the “new” model is a single-layer consignment instead of a multilayer consignment. This does have some significant legal implications, particularly for taxation purposes and timing of payments… but, as important as those are, they are ultimately less important than the industry’s refusal to accept that the Copyright Act of 1976 and the Bankruptcy Code of 1978 operating together fundamentally changed the legal nature of the author-publisher relationship.January 31st, 2010Quick Note: All about Epub
The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) has an overview article on Epub – what it is, how to publish in it, what it’s problems are.The short article, written by Steven Sande, is a good overview and has some hints for Mac people that are hard to find elsewhere.
January 31st, 201021 volumes of Gandhi’s work to be digitized
The Times of India is reporting that 21 volumes of The Collected Works of Mahatma Gandhi will be digitized. These volumes are part of the 100 volumes printed by Navjivan Publications, but these have fallen out of print and are now unavailable, unlike the rest of the collection.The works comprise 50,000 pages and it will take 3 years to complete the work. Eventually all the remaining volumes will be digitized as well.
(via Resource Shelf)
January 31st, 2010National Library of Medicine to digitize works going back to 1600’s
The National Library of Medicine, an arm of the National Institutes of Health, has received a grant to digitize items from its historical medical collections. Digital versions of thousands of medical materials will be done, some of the items dating back to the 17th century. The 30,000 digitized volumes will be made publicly available and there are plans to allow web access to the collection.For more info see this Resource Shelf article
January 31st, 2010Quick Note: New interview with Rita Toews, Founder of Read an Ebook Week
No Shelf Required has a “lovely conversation” with author Rita Toews who is the founder of Read an Ebook Week. Sue Polanka runs a wonderful site and you should go and check it out.January 31st, 2010Canadian writers file objection to Google Book Settlement
The Canadian Writers Against Google Settlement (CWAG) has filed a series of objections to the proposed Revised Settlement. I found two of them especially interesting. You can find their full filing here… With respect to the problem of licensing the work of unlocatable copyright holders, we prefer the existing Canadian approach to a Google-run monopoly. An oft-repeated claim about the Amended Settlement is that it will allow the legal dissemination of copyrighted material for which an author cannot be found. The dissemination of these “orphan works” is indeed an important issue. However, Canadian copyright law already contains a mechanism for obtaining a license to disseminate works that have been orphaned by Canadian authors.[15] As such, the Amended Settlement is a duplicative and unjustified end-run around our domestic regime. …
Books from Canada, the UK and Australia have been swept into the Amended Settlement because they apparently share “a common legal heritage and similar book industry practices.”[16] In actual fact, Canada has unique cultural, linguistic, and juridical characteristics that differentiate Canadians from other members of the Author Sub-Class.
Canada is a bilingual country whose two official languages, French and English, are used by Canadians across the country. Canada is also a bi-juridical country where two legal systems exist side by side: civil law in Québec and common law in other Canadian provinces. The differences between the two traditions that Canada was built on are so profound that the Province of Québec is recognized as a distinct society within Canada. …
-
Amazon capitulates in Macmillan e-book disagreement: Higher e-book prices ahead?
- Ted R.: Richard, never say never. If…
- Binko Barnes: Rob Preece, Publisher says that…
-
NASA posts free X-15 e-book
- Bart: It's also bigger than 6…
- Eric: My take on all this…
- Felix Torres: No working together here; Amazon…
- ficbot: Alexander, I am sorry but…
- Alexander Inglis: Not every author is self-publicity…
-
21 volumes of Gandhi's work to be digitized
- Binko Barnes: THIS is why the movement…
- Kara Lynn Russell: Alphasmart devices, which are pretty…
- Lee Fyock: I was indeed referring to…
- NY Times: Amazon pulled books because Macmillan wants iBooks-style deal
- Nil Einne: Richard Askenase: Even if it's…
- Kindle v iPad: This is just version 1…
-
Kindle sales in the "millions" says Bezos
- Frode Aleksandersen: Let me re-parse that for…
- ficbot: I think ebooks are perfect…
- Linda Hart: As a librarian in a…
-
Amazon capitulates in Macmillan e-book disagreement: Higher e-book prices ahead?
- Amazon capitulates in Macmillan e-book disagreement: Higher e-book prices ahead?
- NASA posts free X-15 e-book
- Legal analysis of the Amazon/Macmillan brouhaha
- Quick Note: All about Epub
- 21 volumes of Gandhi’s work to be digitized
- National Library of Medicine to digitize works going back to 1600’s
- Quick Note: New interview with Rita Toews, Founder of Read an Ebook Week
- Canadian writers file objection to Google Book Settlement
-
30 Jan 2010 19:41
January 30th, 2010Macmillan CEO tells his side of Amazon spat
CEO John Sargent of Macmillan has posted an open letter to Macmillan authors, illustrators, and literary agents giving Macmillan’s side of the dispute with Amazon. He talks about wanting to create “a level playing field” on which all device manufacturers can compete. He provides the details of what Macmillan wants to accomplish:Under the agency model, we will sell the digital editions of our books to consumers through our retailers. Our retailers will act as our agents and will take a 30% commission (the standard split today for many digital media businesses). The price will be set the price for each book individually. Our plan is to price the digital edition of most adult trade books in a price range from $14.99 to $5.99. At first release, concurrent with a hardcover, most titles will be priced between $14.99 and $12.99. E books will almost always appear day on date with the physical edition. Pricing will be dynamic over time.
The agency model would allow Amazon to make more money selling our books, not less. We would make less money in our dealings with Amazon under the new model. Our disagreement is not about short-term profitability but rather about the long-term viability and stability of the digital book market.
Of course, Amazon knows that consumers are reluctant to pay over $9.99—and wants to keep that low price advantage to better compete with the iPad.
January 30th, 2010Slate showdown at Gizmodo
For those of you following the iPad release, Gizmodo just published a roundup of tablets (they call them slates) with specs and a comparison chart. Included are the iPad, HP Slate, JooJoo Aotion Ink Adam, Dell Mini 5, Archos 7 Android, Lenovo U1 and Archos 9.From the website: A quick word about “slates” vs. “tablets”: These are tablets, and it’s a word we prefer. The sad fact is, it’s overused. There’s no way to say “tablet” without including every godawful stylus-based convertible laptop built since 2002. (Thank you, Bill Gates!) And even the new touchscreen tablets come in single-pane and keyboard-equipped laptop styles. So “slate,” good or bad, is the more apt term.
January 30th, 201050% off on AllRomanceeBooks and OmniLit ebooks
SB Sarah is reporting that AllRomanceeBooksOmniLit are offering 50% off on every title in their stores. The sale ends at 11:59 PM Mountain Standard Time.To get the discount you must enter the code SBTBARe1. SmartBitches says that they don’t get a commission on the sales.
January 30th, 2010NY Times: Amazon pulled books because Macmillan wants iBooks-style deal
More information has emerged about the Amazon/Macmillan spat I mentioned last night, in which Amazon pulled almost all Macmillan titles from its store. An update to the New York Times “Bits” blog article I originally linked adds that, according to the blogger’s colleague who spoke to someone at Macmillan:Macmillan offered Amazon the opportunity to buy Kindle editions on the same “agency” model as it will sell e-books to Apple for the iPad. Under this model, the publisher sets the consumer book price and takes 70 percent of each sale, leaving 30 percent to the retailer. Macmillan said Amazon could continue to buy e-books under its current wholesale model, paying the publisher 50 percent of the hardcover list price while pricing the e-book at any level Amazon chooses, but that Macmillan would delay those e-book editions by seven months after hardcover release. Amazon’s removal of Macmillan titles on Friday appears to be a direct reaction to that.
The iPad is still months away, but already it seems to be making waves in the publishing industry.
January 30th, 2010The Future of the Book Market, Part 3: Publishers Content Providers
In previous articles, I have speculated on the future of ebook hardware and on the future of the bookstore . But how about the publishers and content providers? What will their role be?I think the role of the publishing house, certainly when viewed from the standpoint of being a content gatekeeper authors must pass through to reach the market, will diminish substantially. What we will see instead is the rise of the educated critic—in other words, some blogger or reviewer of influence (or several) will become the Oprah(s) of the internet book world and people will increasingly rely on them to filter through the boggy mass of the great internet Slush Pile and lead them to the good stuff. Things like Amazon ranking or some other rating system will be very important. People will browse by rating and the cream of the content will hopefully rise to the top.[Read rest of post]
January 30th, 2010Essential reading of the new filings on the Google Book Settlement
Resource Shelf pointed me to this great roundup of the most interesting filings on the Settlement. It is from Professor James Grimmelmann’s (New York Law School) site The Laboratorium The Creative Commons licensed article is reproduced here in full:Here are some of my picks for the most interesting filings to come in yesterday. This list is far from complete, but these are the ones that I felt most had something new and interesting to say or were most fun to read:
* Amazon’s brief is really hard-hitting. Agree or disagree with its substantive points, you have to admit that this is a superbly executed piece of technical legal advocacy. The highlight is a close discussion of the Reseller program in the amended settlement: unsurprisingly, Amazon thinks that it makes the settlement worse, not better.
January 30th, 2010Ebooks don’t get fungus, but pbooks get it in Luxembourg
30,000 books, a stack which is a kilometer long, have had to be moved from the National Library of Luxembourg because they were attacked by fungus. This will cost €200,000.This can’t happen, of course, with ebooks, but I guess the equivalent would be a case of bit-rot in the books’ DRM servers.
More info on Resource Shelf, on the fungus, that is, not the bit-rot.
January 30th, 2010Why dedicated e-book readers may go the way of dedicated word processors: By Travis Butler
Dedicated e-readers won’t die, Ficbot posted. But Lee Fyock compared them to dedicated word processors, now dead. Then Travis Butler posted the following, which merits a pickup in the main TeleBlog. Photo shows a dedicated word processor. – Chris Meadows.
I think Lee was talking about dedicated word processing computers; systems from companies like Wang Laboratories or IBM that could only run built-in word processing software. Which are indeed dead, dead, dead, to the best of my knowledge.And I believe that was Lee’s point; dedicated word processing computers were popular in the 70s and early 80s, but died when word-processing software on ordinary personal computers got good enough to do most of what dedicated word-processing equipment could do—even if personal computers weren’t quite as good, they were good enough.
January 30th, 2010Apple’s iPad DRM uncertainties make the Financial Times: ePub gummed up
The dogs wouldn’t eat the dog food. Many customers hated iTunes’ proprietary DRM, a fact that Apple’s rivals acted on. So Apple negotiated with the biggies in music and removed DRM from iTunes, so customers could play their purchases on a variety of machines.Lesson learned for the new iPad—touted by some as a salvation for e-bookdom? Nope. The iPad’s Apple e-book software uses the company’s own DRM with the nonproprietary ePub standard, rather than the Adobe DRM system found on many readers and forthcoming devices. DRM in most any form is obnoxious, of course. But at least Adobe-DRMed e-books are a little less so.
Such issues have just made the prestigious Financial Times in an article linked from the home page. FT notes Amazon’s multi-platform approach for Kindle software and correctly wonders if Apple’s e-book format could end up being “more closed than Amazon’s” despite the use of ePub. At least Amazon allows Kindle books to be read on PCs and has BlackBerry and Mac e-reading software in the works. And unless the killjoys at Apple interfere, the existing iPhone Kindle app will run on the iPad“With the iPad still two months away,” writes FT’s David Gelles of the Apple e-book strategy, “there are many unanswered questions. For example, it is unclear whether users will be able to download non-DRM e-books from the web and read them, and what impact a Kindle app on the iPad will have on Apple’s own digital books sales.” Bravo to FT for helping to educate consumers.
Along the way, FT quotes Hadrien Gardeur of Feedbooks (who comments on the possibilities of DRM-related tensions between Apple and publishers), as well as me on Apple’s proprietary approach (“It is not good news for consumers”).
Amazon removes Macmillan titles from direct sale
Found via John Scalzi’s Whatever blog: VentureBeat reports that Amazon has mysteriously removed all Macmillan titles (including Tor SF/fantasy titles) from direct sale via amazon.com (but not .ca or .co.uk). This affects both print and Kindle editions of Macmillan books.Neither VentureBeat nor Scalzi has any idea why Amazon should have done this. It is tempting (from a conspiracy theorist point of view) to assume it has something to do with the iPad/iBooks announcement, but this seems unlikely—it will be months before the titles would even be available as iBooks, and it would make no sense to stop print sales as well as electronic in any event.
I would be inclined to guess it is simply some kind of glitch in Amazon’s system that will be resolved as soon as Amazon notices. Goodness knows Amazon has had plenty of them in the past.
Update: Scalzi posts a follow-up linking to this New York Times “Bits” blog post citing an unnamed industry source who claims that Amazon pulled Macmillan’s books over a pricing disagreement:
Macmillan, like other publishers, has asked Amazon to raise the price of electronic books from $9.99 to around $15. Amazon is expressing its strong disagreement by temporarily removing Macmillan books, said this person, who did not want to be quoted by name because of the sensitivity of the matter.
I had thought that as long as Amazon paid full wholesale price to the publisher, they ought to be able to sell (or give away) the books for whatever they felt like—after all, they would be the ones eating the losses. I suppose we shall see what we shall see.
-
Macmillan CEO tells his side of Amazon spat
- Richard Askenase: Sargent's statement is completely self-justifying…
-
Slate showdown at Gizmodo
- Steve Jordan: Slate suggests a slab of…
- Gary Frost: Tablet suggests a solid almost…
-
Why dedicated e-book readers may go the way of dedicated word processors: By Travis Butler
- Rob Preece, Publisher: Long term, we all have…
- Bill McHale: I think the ultimate fate…
-
The Future of the Book Market, Part 3: Publishers Content Providers
- Rob Preece, Publisher: I've always been interested in…
- Mike Perry: Quote: "Jobs seems to have…
-
Amazon removes Macmillan titles from direct sale
- Mike Perry: Amazon seems to be over-reacting,…
- Richard Askenase: Any writer still working with…
-
Apple’s iPad DRM uncertainties make the Financial Times: ePub gummed up
- Richard Askenase: Rothman- I am SOOO tired…
- David Rothman: Felix and Bob: But I…
- Steve Jordan: Ha! Pond: How do…
- I like the idea of…
-
Geographical restrictions tightening - eReader refusing to download
- Guido Vico: Here I am, looking at…
-
Ebooks don't get fungus, but pbooks get it in Luxembourg
- Daniel Udsen: The only form of digital…
- Gary Frost: Well we will need to…
- Rx for future bookstores: E/P synergies, sample reading, cross promos and partnerships galore
-
E-Luddite novelists: Tom Clancy, J.K. Rowling and John Grisham
- psychic eye: I do believe the number…
- Richard Herley: Charlie's a national treasure. Some…
- Josep: This is a serious problem…
- ferridder: The iTunes store's main benefit…
-
Macmillan CEO tells his side of Amazon spat
- Macmillan CEO tells his side of Amazon spat
- Slate showdown at Gizmodo
- 50% off on AllRomanceeBooks and OmniLit ebooks
- NY Times: Amazon pulled books because Macmillan wants iBooks-style deal
- The Future of the Book Market, Part 3: Publishers Content Providers
- Essential reading of the new filings on the Google Book Settlement
- Ebooks don’t get fungus, but pbooks get it in Luxembourg
- Why dedicated e-book readers may go the way of dedicated word processors: By Travis Butler
- Apple’s iPad DRM uncertainties make the Financial Times: ePub gummed up
- Amazon removes Macmillan titles from direct sale
-
29 Jan 2010 17:34
January 29th, 2010Revised Google Books settlement pleases few
The deadline for comments on the revised Google Books settlement passed yesterday, and all indications are that there are still nearly as many people upset with the second version as there were with the first.Ars Technica has an article covering some of these objections in detail, and links to The Public Index’s list of individual filings. The Wall Street Journal’s Digits blog had another piece from before the deadline looking at Amazon’s and academic authors’ objections, and the Times Online had a look at British authors’ reactions
The revision does not seem to have changed many peoples’ minds. Even organizations such as Public Knowledge that approved of the spirit of Google Books felt that the orphaned works problem could be better solved through a change in copyright law.
But then, few expected it to. The main problems opponents have with the settlement—its opt-out instead of opt-in nature, the end-run around copyright law that it represents, the major first-mover advantage it cedes to Google—are endemic to its very nature.
No matter what changes Google makes, it is doubtful it could do anything to placate the critics without altering its plans beyond recognition. What happens now is anybody’s guess.
See also: "Lawrence Lessig on Google Books settlement: A possible danger to the future of our culture" and "High profile authors petition against Google Book Settlement" from earlier this week
January 29th, 2010Study shows 99% of BitTorrent content infringing; Ars Technica blames DRM
Though the size of the sample makes it a bit closer to anecdotal than scientific, a study has looked at a random sample of about 1,000 files shared via BitTorrent and found only 1% of them do not infringe copyright.Ars Technica makes the point that only 10% of these files are music, which used to be the reason to get onto peer-to-peer. Now, thanks to the departure of music DRM, there is little reason to go to peer-to-peer since unrestricted music can be bought cheaply from trusted sources—even though the lack of DRM means that purchased mp3s can be shared as easily as CD rips.
Aside from 14% of the files which the researcher could not classify, 46% were television shows and movies, 14% pornography, 14% games and software, 1% images, and only 1% books and gadgets. (So much for the fears of rampant e-book piracy.)
Only 1% of these files—7 from games and software and 1 of the pornography titles which the researcher gave the benefit of the doubt—were found to be non-infringing.
January 29th, 2010Swisher, Mossberg, Jobs video: More iPad details emerge
Kara Swisher of AllThingsD’s BoomTown has a video interview with tech review maven Walter Mossberg, including capturing a conversation between him and Steve Jobs. AppleInsider has a summary for those who would rather read than watch.Of particular interest to TeleReaders: battery life for playing back mp3s will be on the order of 140 hours with the display turned off. Jobs does not believe the 10-hour display time for reading e-books will be a major drawback compared to the Kindle.
Because you just end up plugging it in. You end up docking it or whatever you’re going to do with it. It’s not a big deal. 10 hours is a long time. Because you’re not going to read for 10 hours.
Jobs seems to have moderated his “people don’t read anymore” stance to “people don’t read for ten hours at a time”. Wonder if it’s still just as true?
(Moved to near top of blog. Posted ealier. – D.R.)
January 29th, 2010Final days of DriveThruRPG’s digital giveaway donation drive
Only a couple of days remain to donate $20 to help Doctors Without Borders’s efforts in earthquake-torn Haiti if you want to receive the $1480 bundle of digital RPG content from DriveThruRPG that we covered here and here. The tally on the site currently stands at $162,200 donated by gamers to help out in Haiti. This digital giveaway exemplifies one of the greatest benefits of the zero marginal cost of distribution of digital media. The low overhead of providing it means there is practically no cost to give it away, so it can serve as a very enticing inducement to help.
Even if 9/10 of the content does not interest you, you are still getting seven times the value of what you donate in material that does. And the money is going to a good cause.
After January 31st, the bundle will no longer be available to new donors. However, it will continue to be downloadable by people who have already donated to receive it, and DriveThruRPG will continue to accept donations for Doctors Without Borders.
January 29th, 2010How to report the news – TV news, that is
Sometimes something is just so funny that it has to be put up here, even if it is a bit off topic. If TeleRead ever goes into television reporting then we’ll be sure to follow these precepts. Charlie Broker of the Guardian:
Thanks to Wired Correspondent Erin Biba for the heads up.
January 29th, 2010Pee-wee Herman gets an iPad!
Editor’s Note: this is very cute, but it is meant for adults, not kids. PB
| Tags: >January 29th, 2010New book on piracy released: beware the "land-pirats"
Resource Shelf is reporting on Piracy: The Intellectual Property Wars from Gutenberg to Gates, a new book from the University of Chicago Press. The book can be purchased as an ebook outright, or for 30 or 180 days.You might think that prior to the 20th century, “piracy” only referred to nautical shenanigans. But English stationers in the 17th century labelled colleagues who printed unauthorised versions of other people’s work “land-pirats”.
January 29th, 2010Apple is up to something publishers may not like, says Edward Nawotka
That is the title of an editoral by Edward Nawotka, at Publishing Perspectives, about what Apple may have in mind for the future. Go read it.Apple is, if anything, the master of keeping it simple and, very often, attractive. And this is, I believe, one of the reasons that the launch of iBooks should give pause to many publishers. Now that Apple is in the “book space” with its own branded retailer, it’s only a short leap before they become publishers themselves. Just look at what Amazon has done since the launch of its Kindle, with the company launching a variety of publishing and self-publishing initiatives under their umbrella. In fact, on Tuesday, Amazon announced the first four original manuscripts to be published under it publishing imprint, AmazonEncore program; all discovered through its own Amazon Breakthrough Novel Award contest.
I would argue that Apple is in an equally strong position to become a publisher. Apple’s iPhoto software already offer users the opportunity to create photo albums based on templates which can then be easily converted into attractive bound books. It would take only a little effort for Apple to add similar functionality to its iWork software and to allow users to easily convert a document and images into an e-book, which could then be instantly uploaded to iBooks for sale.
publishing industry | Tags: publishing>January 29th, 2010Webinar on e-paper and e-readers
A webinar from +Plastic Electronics and IntertechPira, discusses the evolution of e-paper for the e-reader market and will be held on February 18.The webinar will provide an overview of e-readers to date, technology advances in three key areas: flexibility, colour and video and will also discuss future applications for e-paper displays.
It will be given by Ian French, a principal scientist at Prime View International (PVI). Taiwan-based PVI is the leading supplier of e-paper displays to the burgeoning e-reader market and recently acquired E Ink,the sole supplier of e-paper frontplanes for e-reader devices.
Thanks to E-Ink-Info for the link.
January 29th, 2010iPad and the Kindle, it’s not zero sum
Is the title of an article at ZDnet by Larry Dignan. What gets fuzzy quick is whether the iPad and Kindle are truly on a collision course. You can spin in a circle and hit someone that thinks the iPad will render the Kindle useless. These folks argue that multipurpose devices will trump the Kindle and e-readers. These devices are relics. However, it’s not that simple. After giving the iPad vs. Kindle battle some thought—I basically held my Kindle purchase to scope out the iPad—I’d argue these devices may converge at some point, but for now can coexist.
January 29th, 2010Tony Bandy: The Librarian’s Dilemma – OverDrive and ebook access
Most of the focus in the ebook world is usually on you and me, the individual person. From the hardware we purchase to the ebooks we buy, vendors and other digital providers are continually working to gain our interest. However, from a library point of view, things are completely flipped. By necessity, we librarians work with multiple users on a daily basis, anywhere from 5 to 500 different individuals. As such, any ebook purchase for the library takes on far more implications. As much I would like, libraries simply don’t have the budget to purchase ebook readers for everyone, leaving us in a dilemma. What does my library do? How do I as a librarian bring the ebook world to my patrons? For some of us, the answer is OverDrive.Overwho? OverDrive
Located in Cleveland Ohio, OverDrive is a major player in the world of ebooks as well as other forms of digital media. Perhaps not as well known by individual consumers, OverDrive strikes partnerships with both publishers and libraries, becoming a “middleman” of sorts between them and providing access to digital materials for library patrons and other customers of their services. A good example of this can be found here in Ohio with Digital Downloads. This project includes both OverDrive and several libraries such as the Columbus Metropolitan Library, Grandview Heights Public Library, Greene County Public Library, and others.
January 29th, 2010Sony Touch Edition is best seller, according to Sony Japanese exec
In an interview with Fujio Noguchi, deputy president of Sony’s ereader business he said:Readers are the best sellers on their US Sony Style website and sales volume has quadrupled year over year. Sales were so high over Christmas that registrations brought their servers down on Christmas day.
The best selling model is the Touch edition which surprised them because they thought the low priced Pocket edition would take that place.
Sony wants to use e-ink for its displays, not LCD, so it will wait until color e-ink is available before introducing a color reader. The e-ink displays used by Sony are manufactured to Sony’s standards and the e-ink display for the Daily Edition was developed solely for Sony.
Thanks to E-Reader-info.com for the heads up.
-
How to report the news - TV news, that is
- John Hagewood: LOL Paul! That was…
- Court: Hilarious.
-
Tony Bandy: The Librarian's Dilemma - OverDrive and ebook access
- Mike Perry: Seattle's public library system offers…
-
iPad and the Kindle, it's not zero sum
- Mike Perry: The Kindle will be in…
- Martin: The iPad won't make the…
-
Apple is up to something publishers may not like, says Edward Nawotka
- Mike Perry: Nawotka's article is a silly…
- pond: I agree; whatever Nawotka's been…
-
Study shows 99% of BitTorrent content infringing; Ars Technica blames DRM
- Ben: I'll back up your statement…
- Marilynn Byerly: Blaming DRM is just a…
- Sony Touch Edition is best seller, according to Sony Japanese exec
- Barnes & Noble quietly changes e-book format, neglects to tell consumers
- It may be that MSI…
- Chris Meadows: pond: Interesting thing about the…
-
Kindle sales in the "millions" says Bezos
- Chris Meadows: pond: What are you trying…
- pond: As you note, comments made…
-
600-pages-an-hour scanner: A good deal at $3,499 + the price of a Canon digital SLR?
- articleindemand: Hello, I came across this company…
-
B&N on Nook: Android SDK possible---plus other goodies from news conf with B&N online-biz prez
- James Rowland: I have a nook and…
-
Diesel eBooks: E-book standards would help 'e' stand for 'easier'
- Pavel Vladimirov: I purchased and downloaded an…
-
Apple tablet to be called the IPAD---if Borders survey has the name right. And how about the ‘this year’?
- Folant: Steve Job's stellar iPad will…
- Isabel Coutinho: Same here in Portugal.
-
Innovative new ebook store launches - eBookPie, get a book or just a chapter
- Ron Tomich: Jean, thank you for that…
-
The Best Reason for Re-Engineering Book Publishing - the Need for XML
- Scott Abel, The Content Wrangler: I'm so tired of hearing…
-
How to report the news - TV news, that is
- Revised Google Books settlement pleases few
- Study shows 99% of BitTorrent content infringing; Ars Technica blames DRM
- Swisher, Mossberg, Jobs video: More iPad details emerge
- Final days of DriveThruRPG’s digital giveaway donation drive
- How to report the news – TV news, that is
- Pee-wee Herman gets an iPad!
- New book on piracy released: beware the "land-pirats"
- Apple is up to something publishers may not like, says Edward Nawotka
- Webinar on e-paper and e-readers
- iPad and the Kindle, it’s not zero sum
- Tony Bandy: The Librarian’s Dilemma – OverDrive and ebook access
- Sony Touch Edition is best seller, according to Sony Japanese exec
- Erik Christopher follows up on “The strange case of academic libraries and e-books nobody reads”
- Innovative new ebook store launches – eBookPie, get a book or just a chapter
- Delta to market 13.1″ color ereader in 2nd quarter
-
28 Jan 2010 15:21
January 28th, 2010For the Lack of an Editor, the Debate Changed
We all know that a controversial topic today is climate change. Yes, this is about climate change, but no, it isn’t about whether there is global warming or not. Instead, this is the story of what happens when the editor goes missing.The story begins with a 2007 report by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), a United Nations-affiliated group. Five glaring errors were found in the report, errors serious enough to warrant an apology from the scientists who wrote the particular section under scrutiny.
The section dealt with glacier melt in the Himalayas and the prediction that the glaciers could all melt away by the year 2035. Alas, that prediction missed the mark by several hundred years — the year should have been 2350, not 2035. The scientist who discovered the errors admitted that the errors are neither significant in comparison to the findings of the whole report nor intentional, but they are significant enough to raise questions of credibility regarding the whole report. As a reader, imagine if this had been the drug book your doctor consulted when prescribing medication for you.
January 28th, 2010Why Dedicated E-Book Readers Will Not Die
With all the new ‘convergence’ devices coming out these days—cell phone/media/gaming all in one—is there still going to be a demand for dedicated ebook readers? Would anyone buy a Kindle or a Sony or a Whatever when they could just read a book on their cell phone or magical tablet?Yes. There IS still a demand and will continue to be, but in a different fashion. The days of jumping on the bandwagon with a generic ‘reader’ device just to get in the game may be gone, but I think what we will see in the ‘dedicated device’ market will be an increasing specialization. Companies won’t make ‘general’ readers for casual customers, who may not read enough to justify a dedicated device and won’t care about fancier features. Rather, they will make specific devices optimized for certain markets. For example:
1) DEVICES FOR A SERIOUS READER
These devices will improve on the more all-purpose experience of a convergence device by offering much better battery life for people who just want to read, and by offering feature sets designed to make this reading as seamless and meaningful as possible. Convergence devices will likely support the eventual winner or winners in the format war with ease, but the ’serious reader’ device will likely support numerous and plentiful past formats as these customers tend to be the ones who early-adopted and have sizable libraries already in numerous legacy formats. They will also be less dependent on cell phone plans or internet connectivity—on-board ‘whispernet’ type service like the Kindle, or limited free wi-fi like the Nook will be standard so that voracious readers will never be without the means to buy a book.[Read rest of post]
January 28th, 2010MSI announces $500 tablet, 2H 2010
According to DigiTimes, Micro-Star International (MSI) has announced plans to launch a $500 tablet PC in the second half of 2010. The device would be based upon the nVidia Tegra processor, and sounds similar to the iPad in overall size and functionality.Though MSI has made computer parts for some time (I have an MSI wifi card in the desktop PC on which I am writing this post), they are relatively new to the laptop/tablet market. However, this past Christmas I received an MSI notebook as a gift, and have been quite pleased with it.
It will be interesting to see how they do with a tablet.
The story also mentions Asustek launching Asus@Vibe, a digital distribution service that can provide e-books as well as other content.
January 28th, 2010Apple iBook store to be US only? All mention of iBooks vanishes from Australian site
TUAW is reporting that the Apple Australia site has a footnote in its discussion of the iPad saying that iBooks will be available in the US only.So I went to the Australian site to find the image that TUAW showed, above, and guess what? There is no mention that I can find of iBooks on the site at all. Not in the Features, Design, App Store or Gallery sections at all. No disclaimer, even. If you were in Australia you would have no idea that the iPad does books. The US site has a huge iBooks picture, with text, on the Features section of the site site. The Australian site has his feature completely deleted.
Any of our overseas readers want to take a look at the Features section of their local Apple iPad site and see if its there.
January 28th, 2010iPad adds to the DRM mess? Apple ebook DRM exclusive to Apple hardware
I’ve been keeping my eyes open to see if I could find out anything about the DRM that Apple will be using on their ebooks. It’s nice to see them using Epub, but if that Epub file has proprietary DRM it doesn’t really matter that it’s Epub. You won’t be able read it on another reader anyway.Well, the always excellent jkOnTheRun has this statement by Adobe, but they don’t give a link to the source. If anyone has any more info please let us know:
Adobe is quick to point out that iPad content will not work on any other devices:
“It looks like Apple is continuing to impose restrictions on their devices that limit both content publishers and consumers. Unlike many other ebook readers using the ePub file format, consumers will not be able to access ePub content with Apple’s DRM technology on devices made by other manufacturers.”
January 28th, 2010Taiwan – makes the readers but not many ebooks
Neat article today looks at the Taiwanese ebook scene. As we all know, Taiwan is the major source of ereaders nowadays. However, according to the article, if you live there you can buy a lot of readers, but not many contemporary books. Plenty of Chinese classics are available, but not much by way of current Chinese literature. According to the article the problem is that Taiwanese publishers are unclear of what impact ebooks will have on their paper sales. Sound familiar? The article says that the Taiwanese have near 100% literacy and are big readers, but evidently they are not reading the newest books on their newest gadgets.
January 28th, 2010Kobo to release iPad and other tablet apps
Got a press release from Kobo saying that they are developing a free iPad app that will launch with the iPad in 60 days. The release says that they will also have “Tablet” apps available for Android and Windows tablets starting in February, and that they will continue to enhance their apps for Blackberry, iPhone, Palm Pre and Android. The release indicates that if you read on your Blackberry, for example, when you open Kobo on your tablet it will sync to where you left off. That’s a shot of the tablet app above.January 28th, 2010iPad: U.K. publishers excited
According the Bookseller.com , publishers are excited about the new iPad. Cannongate fees that the price point is fine for a multi-purpose device and it sees some signs that publishers will be able to set their own prices.Mills and Boon feels that the price point will help the ebook market and a number of agents interviewed by the Bookseller.com are excited as well.
January 28th, 2010iPad: Why it isn’t for me
I’m an Apple fan—the owner of a MacBookPro and MacBook Air and a compatible home network—and I’ve gone through tons of iPad stuff.Should I buy one? My preliminary conclusion is, No. Here’s why:
–The iPad will make a lousy ebook reader. What good is a reader with only 10 hours of battery life? You certainly can’t use it when traveling – you can’t even get to Hawaii, Japan or Australia on it. One major benefit of e-ink devices is that their batteries last forever. A couple of weeks on my Kindle and Sony if I’m careful with the wireless. If I go away for a week or more I don’t even need to bring a charger. I just can’t see using such a short-lived device like the tablet.
–Second, the iPad uses AT&T as the 3G carrier. In the New York area, where I live, AT&T’s service can, charitably, be called horrible. Dropped calls are common and if you go into the City you can pretty much forget about getting 3G service, and the iPhone’s constant searching for a 3G connection drains the battery at an alarming rate. [Read rest of post]
January 28th, 2010iPad quick link roundup
A few iPad quick-links:Remember how McGraw-Hill’s CEO blithely leaked about his company’s involvement with the iPad last night? Insiders tell VentureBeat that as a result, any mention of his company was entirely dropped from the iPad’s launch today.
If true, not a great surprise. You don’t tug on Superman’s cape, you don’t spit into the wind, you don’t pull the mask off the old Lone Ranger, and you don’t leak on a Steve Jobs launch presentation.
And speaking of Jobs’s launch presentation, Engadget reports that you can now watch it streamed in its entirety. Granted, it has been pretty much “spoiled” by this point, but still, the opportunity to invite Jobs’s reality distortion field into your living room only comes around a few times per year!
And does the iPad have Flash or not? Apparently you can build iPad apps with it, but not use it in the iPad’s web browser
January 28th, 2010Quick! How many books have you really read in the last week? And how’s that compare to the past?
Related: Chris Meadows on the written word vs. the competition in the era of the iPad and other multimedia machines.. – D.R.
Tell the truth. How many print books did you read in the last week? How many e-books? In the last month? The last year? Are you reading more or less than in the past? Share the numbers in the comment area if you’d like. Here are my answers.Print books: Two books in the last week, six in the last month, and 50 in the last twelve months.
E-books: One in the last week, two in the last month and eight in the last twelve months.
My totals of books read are higher now than they have been in the past few years because I realized recently that I was reading fewer and fewer books; as with so many people I meet, my work and much of my play seems to have migrated to the Web.
To help me read more and concentrate more on what I am reading, I recently started a Web site where I conduct long form interviews with writers. This has meant committing myself to reading books and thinking about them before talking to the authors. And that has certainly enabled me to read more books—I have thus recommitted myself to the joys that deep engagement that long form writing and committed reading enable.
January 28th, 2010The written word vs. the competition in the era of the iPad and other multimedia machines
Related: David Wilks on books vs. other forms of writing. Are you reading more or fewer books than before? – D.R.
Now that the multimedia iPad is in the news, here’s a timely question. Just how does written word compare to the competition?We can absorb written words—in e-books, for example—faster than we can absorb spoken words. Written words are also more efficient to transmit. A picture may be worth a thousand words, but the related file can be the size of tens or hundreds of thousands of them. The same for the byte count of sound recordings.
Once written, your words stay around for as long as the medium they’re written on (which is a point of contention between paper books and e-books). They represent crystallized knowledge or imagination, and a single copy can influence the thinking of many, many people.
Have you ever thought about how miraculous it is that we (or at least those of us fortunate enough to have learned to touch-type) can rapidly produce millions of words and send them out all over the world just by wiggling our fingers in ways that were trained into us until they are as unconscious as walking or breathing?
Since the Internet was first invented for exchanging e-mail, you could say that the written word was the Internet’s first “killer app”. Ever since then, the amount of text e-mail, netnews, relay chat, gopher, veronica, wais, ftp, and web traffic has dwarfed in quantity, if not in bandwidth, the johnny-come-lately audio and video transfers.
- iPad: Why it isn't for me
-
Apple iBook store to be US only? All mention of iBooks vanishes from Australian site
- Cleo Anderson: It is very true as…
- Paul Durrant: It's not mentioned on the…
- Al: Now that the Apple iPad…
- nkkingston: To be fair, the Kindle…
-
Writing ‘in the cloud’: Four tools for remote writing
- Spencer: Hey there, I'm Spencer. I…
- Raymond: I love Dropbox! I have…
-
iPad adds to the DRM mess? Apple ebook DRM exclusive to Apple hardware
- HeavyG: I would be stunned to…
- Felix Torres: Yes! Yes! Yes! My fondest dream…
- tony: cant wait to get one!
- iPad quick link roundup
-
Another source for Kindle books: The Baen Free Library and Webscriptions
- Paul Wirtz: Also you can set Baen…
-
Quick! How many books have you really read in the last week? And how’s that compare to the past?
- claatra: This month I've read three…
- Thomas: e-books read in the <6…
-
The written word vs. the competition in the era of the iPad and other multimedia machines
- Gary Frost: Special attributes of e-books include…
-
iPhone App Store to let books contain the F word? Parental controls coming to iPhone and iPod Touch
- Felix Torres: @Pilgrim: The iPhone App store serves…
- ficbot: I babysit a family that…
- Felix Torres: @Christo: Thanks for the tip…
- Christo: Looking through what is changed…
- Blue Tyson: Chris, You can check this yourself…
-
Macmillan prez says piracy is biggest issue for digital publishers
- Blue Tyson: MacMillan's biggest problem is clearly…
- For the Lack of an Editor, the Debate Changed
- Why Dedicated E-Book Readers Will Not Die
- MSI announces $500 tablet, 2H 2010
- Apple iBook store to be US only? All mention of iBooks vanishes from Australian site
- iPad adds to the DRM mess? Apple ebook DRM exclusive to Apple hardware
- Taiwan – makes the readers but not many ebooks
- Kobo to release iPad and other tablet apps
- iPad: U.K. publishers excited
- iPad: Why it isn’t for me
- iPad quick link roundup
- Quick! How many books have you really read in the last week? And how’s that compare to the past?
- The written word vs. the competition in the era of the iPad and other multimedia machines
- From e-books to coin-operated libraries: David Wilk interviews me
- Writing ‘in the cloud’: Four tools for remote writing
Search the Site
